Argh. i don't know what I am doing at work and I am screwed.

{{Nora}} anything we can help with?

Steph, I hope Ray helps and I hope lunch helps with the cheering up.

Enjoy your free lunch, Tep. Hope Ray starts helping sooner rather than later.

but I am so very Boston.

Topic!Cindy, is being very Boston a good gig? One of my editors has a contact in some Boston publishing concern with a job opening, and she's sending him/her my info.

I don't know, Calli. I love it here, but I'm a homebody and change averse. Where are you originally from? How do you feel about lots of weather? You're always going to be relatively close to the ocean, and mountains, as well as woodsy lake areas.

Huh. That sounds like my kind of place.

How do you feel about lots of weather? You're always going to be relatively close to the ocean, and mountains, as well as woodsy lake areas.

Sounds delightful. I'm originally from Alpena, MI, which is right on the northeastern coast of the lower peninsula of Michigan. [link]

So I was raised with snow by the end of October, spring sometime in May. I've been living in central NC for the past several years and trying to find a job somewhere closer to a major coast and further north.

I had to make a few minor edits and it's all done.

Yay, Deena!

Hey, bitches. I once got into a lengthy online discussion with somebody about my lighthearted use of the word "shikse" to apply to myself...I suppose "Dr. Cox said it," was not the strongest argument I could ever make, but, hey, fellow Homicide fan. I mean, I had read it meant "blemish", but I was totally kidding. I suppose I appreciated the tip in case I was talking to somebody who didn't know me, but I still think that person needed to take the pole from his um, tuchis. The Wire message boards are scary for so many reasons. Tep, hang in there. Gud, "for once," is the worst.

Back from Annabel's checkup. She's now 97th percentile for height, 60th for weight, having shot up several inches while barely gaining any weight since her last visit.

For her speech, while the doctor isn't extremely concerned, saying that probably half the 18-month-olds she sees have less than five words, she does think it's worth checking things out so we can intervene early if there's a problem. So she's referring her for a speech and hearing evaluation at Children's Hospital. She didn't dismiss my concerns about autism out-of-hand, and said it would be worth trying to sign her up for the UW study--if she's normal, she can be in the control group, after all. But she says that most of the children she's ended up diagnosing with autism spectrum disorders had exhibited some kind of behavior, usually a lack of interactivity, that raised warning flags for her earlier on. Annabel's behavior has always struck her as normal and age-appropriate, so if there's any problem delaying her speech, she thinks it more likely to be the tongue tie or even a slight hearing problem.

If I ever have another kid with tongue tie, I'm just going to have it snipped in infancy to spare myself the angst.